This invention relates to a sanitary door handle whereby a manual user-operated mechanical advancing mechanism replaces position of a continuous thin paper/film on the handle thus user hands do not come into contact with potentially contaminated area touched by previous users.
Contaminated door handles have been a source of transfer of bacteria, germs and potential diseases, especially in areas of high human traffic such as public toilets, hospitals and restaurants to name a few. Most public toilet doors open inwards for safety reason, therefore the person entering the room does not necessarily have to touch any surface, and however the person exiting the room has to pull on a handle to open the door. A door, which can only open in one direction, cannot be opened without a handle and therefore it becomes contaminated by the users and human-to-human transfer of germs and diseases is inevitable.
Several designs for sanitary door handles, gloves and tissues for handling potentially contaminated door handles have been proposed over the years. For example application number GB2418857 by Wyen George James introduces a door handle, which sprays disinfectant on the door handle as it is operated on and claims to improve personal and public hygiene. However, this relies on a mechanism to spray the liquid on the surface of the handle, which may leave an undesirable as well as unexpectedly wet surface for the next user. The spray methodology cannot remove filth or other undesirable sediment from the surface left by users.
Davis Trevor Charles Edward (application number GB2387542) proposes a transparent handle incorporating a switch whereby an ultraviolet light is shined from within it and hence sterilises the surface. It requires external power to illuminate the UV light. And, again it has the drawbacks of the previous invention mentioned and its effectiveness is questionable.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,789,695 by G Benjamin presents a door handle, which is covered by a dispensable tissue—the tissue is dispensed from the hanging holdall on the door and covers the door handle. The user pulls a fresh tissue, which acts as a barrier between the hand and the handle and once the door is opened discards the tissue in a small receptacle or bin. This system relies only on proper use, is over-simplified and the holdall may not accommodate all the discarded tissues.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,557 by Manson Barry F et al is a handle bar in the form of a loop. It is claimed the user can operate it with the wrist or forearm. It appears to be a bulky handle bar and its safety is questionable in high traffic public places so is its ease of usage and safety when handled by untrained passing persons as well as the disabled.
With regards to the state of the art and relevance to the present invention, Hawkins F (U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,469) filed an application for a door handle, which incorporates a material advancing system activated by a sensor detecting approaching hands. The mechanism is motorized using batteries as a source of power. It appears to be a very elaborate system with not-so-easily replaceable paper reels and some other drawbacks; the paper whilst in use does not cover the whole of the handle leaving some area exposed to hands hence defying its objective.
The patent application by Muderlack et al (US2007/0241125 A1) presents a door handle material advancing system that has the versatility that, when mounted on a door, its handle can be grasped and used in different aspects. It is also claimed to have a dual-use handle sanitary cover refill cartridge for supplying and collecting used material to aide loading of such a cartridge inside the handle's casing. However, on close inspection of the patent description it appears that complications related to loading of the sanitary covered handle relay onto the main handle core still remain. Although extensively described and illustrated in this application, it's unclear as to how the cover material or the said handle relay, when in place, can cover the majority of the handle area grasped by hand. Furthermore, the proposed system adopts a rather elaborate sensor-activated motorized handle cover advancing and cover material metering device. The system has the advantages noted above but it is believed that from the maintenance, practical and logistical point of view it's usage may be limited.